For shadow dwelling women

March 2, 2017March 2, 2017

Lunation Leathers

Instagram is still a never-ending source of inspiration to me and just the other day its explore page lead me to Lunation Leathers, which sells beautiful hand-crafted hair accessories. Based in Pennsylvania, it is operated by Leia Churchel and her husband Kevin. They are both very much inspired by the dark and macabre side nature, yet their designs come with a twist, as Leia’s admiration for Art Noveau – which I share, btw! – has an impact on the designs as well.

“Each piece is influenced by natural curves of the wild and hints of Art Nouveau can be seen through out.” Lunation Leathers

The hair slides by Lunation Leathers are truly handmade, from drafting to carving, dying, stitching … even the pins are hand-forged! Also, the leather that is used is partly ethically sourced (it is stated in the product description if this applies).

Leia herself describes her love for leather as follows:

“I had always loved the smell of leather when Id walk into boot stores and biker shops ….. those are memories that stick out from my childhood almost like fresh baked cookies only leather! I found my infatuation in an Antique mall in the middle of nowhere wondering what an old piece of furniture was. After some research I found out it was a stitch horse used for saddle making & I was hooked from then on out. With leather I was finally able to connect death with a form of rebirth. Making a new piece from something that had died solidified my love of leather…” Leia Churchell, Lunation Leathers

I really understand what Leia means by regarding her creations as giving new life to something that was dead. I feel the same about taxidermy, which I am a ambitious collector of, but until now it had never occured to me that this may apply to leather as well.

Anyway, there has just been a shop update last Sunday (February 26th), and the hair slides are going fast … but Lunation Leathers frequently updates its shop.